


grimdark

by mistyheartrbs



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Let Me Tell You About Homestuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 07:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17741762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistyheartrbs/pseuds/mistyheartrbs
Summary: Bulshar is gone, the Garden is safe, but Nicole Haught isn't about to give up just yet.





	grimdark

**Author's Note:**

> some Backstory for this fic: i started writing it before the s3 finale, forgot about it for several months, and then finished it yesterday. the whole thing is based on my (completely self-indulgent) theory that, hurt and made angry by grief, nicole might go back to her "bad-girl" roots in s4. all of this is inspired by the grimdark concept from homestuck. because i'm still a homestuck.

It happens too fast and too slow all at once. They say it does, in the books and movies and TV shows she catches out of the corner of her eye on slow days in the Purgatory sheriff's office, but that doesn't prepare her for it. Waverly whispers it, _finally_ she says those three words but it's already too late and she smiles, kisses Nicole one more time before she's turned to stone, and her warmth slips away like dust. The ring clatters to the ground, and Nicole wants to step on it - step on Bulshar and Julian and everyone else who led to _this._ And in the end it didn't even break the curse. In the end Wynonna held a quivering Peacemaker to Bulshar's face as he told her that the curse wouldn't end with him, no, it would outlast him. 

In the end Waverly smiled and it was radiant and it wasn't the end of the curse after all. 

Doc lowers his hat to his chest. Wynonna is crumpled on the cold stone tile, a shell if anything at all. Jeremy is the first one to break the silence, bless him.

"What do we do now?" he whispers, as if afraid to disturb Waverly - no, the thing that holds Waverly - no, the thing that _is_ Waverly. 

"We finish breaking this goddamn curse," Wynonna says, hoarse, destroyed, _tired._ "It's what she would've wanted." 

And every single moment she's experienced since she stepped into that bar floods Nicole like a typhoon, and she hears the name they called Bulshar before all of this - _Sheriff Clootie_ \- and the badge starts to feel like it's made of lead, or fire maybe because whatever it is it's weighing her down and it _hurts_ and she wanted to make a difference but what good was the law when the love of her life was a slab of rock and the world spun anyway?

"No," she says, picking the ring up off the ground. She slips it on her finger and it fits perfectly. "We get her back." 

***

Something in her goes cold. Wynonna notices it - notices how rarely she's at the station, instead preferring to stay in her house, pouring over pages and pages of old research. 

_Waverly's_ old research.

Everyone comes to her house one day, a few weeks later, sheepish and wavering. Uncertain. Nicole doesn't even answer until Calamity Jane bites the cuffs of her pants and drags her to the door. 

"What?" She's snappish, and the tone causes both her and Wynonna to flinch. Doc and Jeremy linger a few feet behind. 

"Old man Nedley's wondering where you've been," Wynonna mutters. She doesn't look her in the eye, instead focuses on some distant point in the house. Calamity Jane weaves her way around Nicole's legs, meowing something that almost sounds like words. "Can't just leave Purgatory in the dust, Sheriff."

"Like you did as a teenager?" She shouldn't be talking like this, shouldn't be acting this _awful,_ but everything's gray and everything hurts and then there's Wynonna, hurt just as much, and she's just _standing_ there. 

"What're you even _doing_ in here?" With all the tact of a bull, Wynonna pushes past her and heads to the coffee table in the center of Nicole's living room. Calamity Jane follows her, trotting at her heels and making little _prrup_ sounds. "Jesus, Haught. What is all of this?" 

"Research. Hers. There . . . there has to be something in here." 

"Listen, I'm the first to say none of this shit that happened was remotely okay, but she wouldn't want you to waste away like this and-"

"What do _you_ know?" Nicole whirls around, clutching two papers in her hands, some ancient magazine clippings taken from a corkboard in the offices. They crumble into dust. Wynonna backs away, but she doesn't seem fazed. 

"Bad time. Okay. I get that. Just know I'm still here, kicking demon ass, whenever you get down from that Haught horse." Wynonna walks off, slams the door. Calamity Jane jumps up at the noise and rushes into the closet. Good instincts, that one. Nicole follows her, picks her up, and notices an old leather jacket crumpled at the bottom. She remembers it, remembers high school and college and her own little pledge for a fresh start when she came to Purgatory, and she picks it up, cautiously, like it could bite. 

She's so tired. 

With a heavy breath, she puts it on.

***

Wynonna, unofficially, becomes the stand-in Sheriff. This is met with less apprehension than expected, probably because nobody in Purgatory can still be bothered to hate her when they know she's the only thing standing between them and a grisly death at the hands of some 19th-century nutcase. 

Nicole goes in the opposite direction. 

She doesn't mean to - there's never a moment where she says, out loud, any of the things leading to the change, but it's there. The neatness and professionalism she'd so prided herself on is thrown out the window, as is the warmth she'd entered the town with. A row of jagged edges and dark leather is left in its place. 

It happens over time, instead. Wynonna, always hiding behind a bottle of whiskey and a couple dozen quips, even as the stand-in Sheriff, makes fun of her for it, the bad-girl attitude that doesn't really fit anymore.

She doesn't stop researching. Papers fly all about the house as it gets more and more disorganized. Waverly's meticulous research from over the years is thrown onto corkboards, desperate, and every day Nicole visits the forest. She never finds the stairs, never even finds any 'hint' that they were ever there. 

She hates it, wishes that at least they'd keep that stupid statue that held the love of her life, but instead it's just trees and trees and trees. Bulshar is dead, but his trees remain, taunting her. 

Eventually she starts making maps, but the paths change every time. 

***

Wynonna, never one to pass up a good joke even in the face of all of . . . this, says that Nicole looks like she came straight - sorry, _gay_ from a bad 80s cop movie. 

(Not as the cop, mind you. As the person the cop tracks down.) 

They're at Shorty's, sitting side-by-side, talking but not really talking to each other. It's been a month, or maybe two - Nicole's stopped counting. It hurts too much. 

"Whose motorcycle is out there?" Wynonna asks, staring at Nicole's attire. 

"Mine," she responds, gruffly, staring at some spot on the wall. 

"Oh, man, you really think you're Haught stuff, don't ya? I bet Waverly'd find this whole getup . . ." She trails off, then, the weight of the words striking her and sending her leaning deeper on the counter. "Sorry." 

Nicole doesn't answer. 

"Found any leads yet?" 

"The Baron Samedi," Nicole mutters, toying with Bulshar's - Waverly's - _her_ ring, still not looking Unofficial Sheriff Earp in the eye. 

"Who?"

"He . . . I gave him back his hat. Last year, when you were dealing with the Widows. It wasn't a huge case so I didn't mention it to you or . . . or . . ." 

"Yeah." 

"Anyway, I'd forgotten about him, but he owes me a favor." Nicole taps her fingers on the countertop, over and over and over again. Wynonna clicks her tongue, disapproving. 

"Don't you know better than to make deals with demons, Nicole?" The use of her first name is startling to say the least, brings the whole room into focus. Wynonna looks her dead in the eye. "Waverly . . . she wouldn't want this." Nicole stands up, picks up her coat and starts for the door. 

"I still have to try."

***

And try she does, driving through the streets of Purgatory on the unsteady motorcycle beneath her feet until she arrives at the destination. The graveyard has seen better days, but she knows just what to look for. 

"Baron Samedi," she says, her voice low, cautious. The "lone wolf" thing isn't working so well, really, not when she's always had someone in her corner. Nedley. Wynonna. _Waverly._ Nicole Haught is not used to working alone, and she doesn't like it, but the Garden took her heart that day too, wrapped icy tendrils around it until all she could do was throw herself into this _persona,_ this mean person hell-bent on getting Waverly back beyond reason. "I know you're here." 

_"It's you."_ The voice doesn't seem to come from the grave - rather, it echos, rattles around in Nicole's head like a thought. She wonders if anyone else would be able to hear it if they were around. _"Why are you back?"_

"You owe me a favor." Don't show weakness. Don't be aggressive. Don't be afraid. Nicole licks her lips after she says it - her mouth feels dry, all of a sudden, and the air feels colder. She can't see him, but he's there, probably standing right in front of her. She imagines the hat on his head, her ticket back to Waverly, and her breathing steadies. 

_"As you wish. What do you need?"_

If Wynonna was there, she'd crack a _Princess Bride_ joke. If Jeremy was there, he'd give some explanation that made all of this make marginally more sense. If Waverly was there, she'd hold Nicole's hand as the ground shook beneath her feet. 

"Get . . . get us into the Garden." The _us_ comes so naturally that she knows before she's even taken another breath what to do. 

_"That is . . . doable."_

"Good." 

***

Wynonna is all for it before Nicole even finishes her sentence. 

"I was wondering when you'd come to your senses, Haughtstuff," she says, already raring to go. "This lone wolf shtick never fit you." 

"Don't count on anything just yet." Nicole scrawls down a note for Nedley, just in case she doesn't come back, telling him to take Calamity Jane and that he was the best mentor anyone could've asked for. "We've still got to get in there." 

"Guns blazing? You know that I'm gonna be there, Hau-" Wynonna pauses, looks at her friend. Their roles are reversed, and it's not comfortable for either one, and so she smirks that crooked smirk of hers, teeth looking like fangs in the moonlight, and shakes her head. "Nicole." 

"Glad to hear it." 

***

They don't wait for morning to come.

Samedi was vague with his terms - of course he was, demons got off on loopholes and twists of the tongue - and Nicole figures it best to head there right away. Wynonna agrees with her, possibly the first time she's ever agreed with her about anything. Jeremy and Doc come with them, too, trailing behind just in case something happens. They don't seem to mind being backup.

"Right here, yeah?" Samedi had shown Nicole the spot, and she'd tied a ribbon around the trees accordingly. She nods. 

"Right here." She takes a breath and steps forward, and they're . . . they're not _gone_ exactly, because it still looks mostly like the forest they'd been in a second ago, but it's also not the same. It doesn't _feel_ the same. Wynonna tenses up, tightens her grip on Peacemaker - it's a _sword_ now, which Nicole still thinks is ridiculous and (she must begrudgingly admit) kind of badass - as she looks around. There's a sharpness to the woods that wasn't there before, a harsh light cast on all of them. 

"Waverly?" Wynonna starts the call, and Nicole joins in. Even if they're in the . . . Garden, she supposes that's what it is, Waverly's statue is still gone. For the first time in months, though, Nicole feels some hope budding in her veins, and she isn't about to let it die. 

"Waverly? We're here! It's us, we're here." Nicole waves her arms around, like Waverly will somehow see them. Nothing greets her but the faint whiffs of wind. "Waverly?" 

_"Nicole?"_

It's faint, and weak, and so quiet that for a moment Nicole figures it must be her mind playing tricks on her, but then Wynonna stiffens and she realizes it's 'not,' and then that budding hope blooms into a flower that threatens to burst from her bones. 

"I'm here, we're here!" Nicole yells, louder this time, tears almost prickling at the corners of her eyes. Plants snake around her feet - not binding her, no, just . . . reacting. She doesn't move. "Waverly!" 

And then she bursts through the trees like a vision, and Nicole and Wynonna and Doc and Jeremy all rush forward. 

"You're here," Waverly whispers, and she's crying just as much as the rest of them. "How are you here?" 

"Long story, Baron Samedi- it doesn't matter." Nicole wipes the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, and it's at that moment that Waverly steps back, gets a good look at her family for the first time in months.

"Wait, are you wearing _leather?"_

"Not important right now." Nicole hugs her again, and it's as if the world has become whole once again. 

***

They return, after a few hours - how exactly is a mystery to all of them, since there's no visible portal or anything - but in any case they're back in Purgatory soon enough, and it's as if the entire town mobs Waverly with disbelief, excitement, everything in between. It's springtime, or as close to springtime as it can get in a town like Purgatory, where snow covers most things even when it hasn't snowed in weeks, and the flowers are blooming. 

"You did good, Haught," Wynonna says, jamming her hands into her pockets as Chrissy Nedley hugs Waverly and asks her about what the Garden was like, was it scary, were there any hot angels there. Nicole turns in surprise. 

"Hm?" 

"Hope this means you'll go back to being the goody-two-shoes cop my sister fell for. There's only room for one bad girl in this town." 

"Yeah, I don't think I mind that."

"Good." 

And all was well.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah
> 
> you can kinda tell where i picked up after the finale


End file.
